Battle of the Bands
by Sisterpups
Summary: It all started out at a party for Amy. Discovering everyone's individual musical talent, Sonic forms a band to compete in a band competition for a huge reward. But he's not the only one. What happens when Sonic's band faces complications with it's members when one of his rival's band is also competing for number one in the World Wide Music Fest?
1. Chapter 1

It was Amy Rose's 20th birthday. And the hedgehog couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to have her birthday on. The sun was shining in the cloudless sky with a high temperature of 82 degrees.

Amy was having her birthday get-together at Sonic's house. The blue blur was more than happy to have her party at his house. He, along with many of his friends, helped decorate his rather large house into a beautiful beach themed party. The palm trees that stood around his pool were decorated with lights for when it would start to get dark and the tables with tropical fruits and sweets had grass skirts. Music boomed out of his large stereo system that he had Knuckles and Storm move outside and even some instruments were brought along. And most importantly, Amy was happy. That's all Sonic cared about.

The doorbell started ringing repeatedly as Amy rushed up to the door.

"Happy birthday, Amy!" Cream, Blaze, and her other girlfriends sang when she opened the door.

Amy cupped her face in her hands and giggled. "Thank you guys! Come on in! Party is out back!"

"You look so pretty Amy!" Cream said cheerfully. Amy had a lily flower in her hair with a colorful lei around her neck. She wore a yellow and white striped bathing suit with a purple sun dress over it.

"Thank you!" Amy replied back. "Go ahead and head outside! I'll be there in a moment." She took the presents they brought along into her arms to put on the table behind her. She gasped when she almost dropped them; there were so many!

"Whoa! Careful, Amy!" a familiar voice sounded from beside her. Sonic caught three run away gifts and set them on the table for her. He also took the ones she was holding.

"Thanks, Sonic. I can't believe how many people are here!" she said.

Sonic grabbed her hand. "Well the party isn't in here. It's out back! Let's go." Said, he lead her outside where all of their friends were having a good time.

A long day was ahead of them. Swimming, volleyball, dancing, pictures and cake and presents later on; so many different activities for the friends to do. Amy had a blast with the small volleyball game with her, Blaze, Cream, Rouge, and Wave against Sonic, Silver, Shadow, Jet, Knuckles, Vector, and Tails. And much to the guys' surprise, even though there were more of them, the girls beat them 3 times in a row. The girls walked away from the net with victorious smiles as the guys followed behind them covered in sweat and sand. Then it was time to swim.

Everyone but Sonic. We all know the reason why.

As the sun started to set, leaving the sky in pink and orange swirls, the lights started to come on. Everyone stood in awe as they watched the tables, trees, and doorway light up, and a string of lights on the roof of the porch light up reading '_Happy Birthday Amy!_' in bright pink and yellow.

"I don't know what to say, you guys!" Amy was almost in tears. Her party was so beautiful. "You guys are the best."

"Anything for a lovely girl like you." Sonic wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her tightly. She turned around and hugged him.

"Hey! I know something we haven't done yet!" Charmy's voice sounded from the back of the crowd. "We haven't done karaoke yet!"

"That sounds like fun!" Cream agreed. "Can we, Amy?"

"Of course!" Amy nodded. "The karaoke machine is right over there." Said, the two young teens rushed over to the machine and turned it on. With the song of their choice, they started singing.

Sonic and Amy stood side by side as they watched the young ones sing. They had to giggle at how they sounded.

"Thanks again, Sonic. Today was a really great birthday." she said. Sonic pulled her closer to his side and she laid her head on his shoulder. "Anything for you…" he replied back softly.

"Oh, just kiss already!" a voice said behind them. The two turned around and they saw Knuckles leaning over to the side of the pool.

Amy just stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"Why aren't you over there with the karaoke bunch?" Sonic asked his red friend. The echidna shrugged and smirked. "Do I look like the singing kind?" he asked.

"You should at least go over there." Amy said. "Join the rest of them."

"Nah, I think I'm going to stay here." Knuckles objected with a lazy sigh, leaning back in the water.

"Well, _I'm_ going over since _I'm_ social." Amy teased as she started walking away.

Sonic grabbed her arm. "No, you're not!" he laughed as he picked her up and started walking closer to the pool. Knuckles saw what he was going to do and swam to the side and out of the way, laughing while doing so.

"No! No!" Amy yelled. This caught the attention of everybody at the karaoke machine. The girl couldn't stop laughing. "Stop! Sonic, don't you da-…!"

Sonic didn't let her finish. He threw her into the pool with a loud _splash_, followed by a bunch of laughing and clapping from the others. Amy resurfaced and swam to the ladder. Dripping wet as she stood before him, she gave him an evil eye but with a small smile.

"If you weren't hydrophobic, you'd be in the water by now." she muttered. All Sonic could do was laugh. Handing her a towel and taking her hand into his, he lead her to the rest of the group at the karaoke machine.

Everyone was taking turns at the karaoke machine. But as the hour passed, the karaoke machine wasn't being used much anymore. Some of the friends were playing their own instruments and others would sing along with them. It was a lot more entertaining than the karaoke machine.

They all watched as Tails played a keyboard, Shadow, Espio, and Jet played an acoustic guitar, and Blaze even brought along her mandolin. Rouge and some of the other girls would take turns singing in their beautiful voices, everyone clapping and singing along with them.

It turned into a mini concert.

Sonic also noticed just how _talented _everyone was. He never noticed it before until now. He didn't even know that Jet and Espio played guitar, and pretty darn good at it too. Sonic himself knew how to play, and he frequently sang from time to time. As they played their last song, Sonic's ears perked up in realization. A smile stretched across his lips.

"Hey guys! I have a question." he said, silencing the clapping and cheering. "Have you ever considered being in a band?"

"A band?" Espio asked. Setting his guitar down, he just chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not good enough to be in a band."  
"What are you talking about Espio?!" Charmy yelled. "You are awesome! You _all _are awesome! Why not start a band?"

"Yeah!" Now the entire crowd of party guests piped up into roars of encouragement. Espio and even Jet just shook their heads.

Sonic walked up to them and crossed his arms. "Have you ever really thought about it though? Maybe with four more amazingly talented people, you'd make it big with the music business?"

"Why are you asking?" Jet wondered. "Get to the point, hedgehog!

"I'm starting a band!" Sonic announced, catching everyone's attention. "There is a band competition in about two months and I wanted to join! It sounds like a lot of fun. But I need band mates to win the prize with me. Anyone want to join me?"

Murmurs of the offer started to float among the crowd until Tails jumped up and smiled. "You know me, Sonic! I'm there for ya!"

Sonic gave thumbs up to his little brother. "Awesome! I have a keyboardist! Anyone else?"

Knuckles walked up to them, squeezing his dreadlocks dry with a towel. "I can play drums pretty good. Give me the chance?"

"Of course! Anyone else?"

A booming sound startled the guests as they looked over to see Silver jamming out on his bass guitar. He played some off-the-wall riffs, fingers flying over the neck of the guitar. He left the friends with dropped-jaws and surprised looks. "You got a bass player!" the hedgehog said.

"All I need is a guitarist." Sonic nodded his head. He looked over to Espio and Jet, only to receive a couple shakes of the head no.

Then he saw Shadow sitting at the end of the crowd, playing his guitar while mindlessly ignoring the conversation. His bright red eyes looked up to meet Sonic's and he immediately shook his head no. That's when Rouge suddenly got up from her seat and ran over to Shadow, wrapping her arms around his neck into a small hug. The dark hedgehog was startled by the sudden action, but still smiled. "Try it Shadow! You never know!" she encouraged.

Shadow just smirked and continued picking the strings of his large acoustic guitar. "I don't know…" was his only reply.

"Come on Shads! What is there to lose?" Sonic asked.

Shadow eyed the blue hero again, still playing. Finally, he sighed and looked back down. "Why not…" he muttered.

"You got a band, Sonic!" Amy cheered. "Maybe you guys can win that competition you were talking about!"

"Sounds like fun!" Tails said. "I've always wanted to play in front of a big crowd! We can meet back here tomorrow for practice!"

"Sounds like a plan, little bro! We'll meet up here tomorrow afternoon and discuss the band and what we need to do. I believe we can make this work!" Sonic gave his trademark thumbs up.

"Can we please have some cake now?" Charmy asked.

"And presents! You still have to open presents, Amy!" Cream took Amy's hand and pulled her towards the house. Everyone else followed inside to enjoy the rest of the pink hedgehog's birthday party.

**A/N: Hello FanFiction friends! I am back with another story! Yay! I've had this idea for a long time now and I hope you guys like this story! This is my first time doing a band fic so as the story goes on, do let me know if there is anything I can improve or fix! So Sonic overheard that there is a band competition coming up and felt that together, him and his friends could win. But little does he know, there will be some complications that may make this competition challenging hehehe. And yes, Sonic and his friends are much older than usual in this story. Most of them are in their twenty's in this story except for Charmy and Cream. They're in their teens since they're much younger than the rest. Anyway, I plan on updating this story really soon, so please let me know if you are interested in reading more! Feedback is always awesome, you know! So thanks for reading! Review pleaseee!**


	2. Chapter 2

The next day came quickly. As the grandfather clock struck one in the afternoon, Sonic walked into a room of his house that he dedicated for the band and their practice. The room was previously used as a storage, but Sonic now had something to turn the room into. Upon walking into the room, he saw Tails already there adjusting the settings to his keyboard, gently playing the keys and adjusting the sound levels for each.

"How's the keyboard working for you, Tails?" Sonic asked his little brother.

The teen fox looked up and smiled. "Oh, hey Sonic!" he greeted. "It's alright. It's been forever since I've played this keyboard. It's got to be at least 8 years old." He started playing simple three note songs to test the sound one more time. "Still sounds as good as ever."

"I forgot you even _had _that keyboard, Tails." Sonic admitted. He eyed the label on the back of the instrument. "A Yamaha?"

"Yeah, I love this brand. The only brand I have ever bought when it comes to music." Tails replied. Standing up from his seat, Tails let out a bored sigh.

"Where are the others? We've been waiting for them for the past hour." he asked, walking over to the other side of the room where a large drum set was set up. Running his hand over a polished cymbal, the fox eyed the musical piece. It was large, but basic. It had the snare drum, two crash cymbals, middle and floor toms, and of course the bass drum and hi-hat cymbals.

"Do you think Knuckles will like this drum set?" he asked.

Sonic shrugged and sat down on the sofa in the corner of the room. "He should. I don't see why he wouldn't."

"Where did you even get this? Since when do you play drums?"

"I don't. One of Chris's friends used to play drums, but then he gave up music for sports. He gave Chris the drum set, in which he gave to me when he heard about this band idea." the hedgehog explained.

Tails nodded in understanding. His ear started to twitch when he heard footsteps approaching the room.

When they looked up, Knuckles and Silver appeared in the doorway.

"Hey guys!" Sonic greeted. "Come on in. We're just setting some stuff up."

As the two walked in, Sonic noticed the large bass guitar case strapped on Silver's back. When the time traveler set it down and unzipped it, he brought out a beautiful electric blue, black, and white Fender branded bass guitar.

"That little riff you played at Amy's birthday party was pretty wicked, Silver." Tails mentioned upon seeing his friend's guitar.

"Oh, well thanks!" Silver smiled his appreciation. "Just thought I'd show proof that I could play. This band idea sounds awesome, Sonic."

Before Sonic could say anything, the deep and hollow sound of an upbeat drum solo echoed through the room, startling the three. Knuckles started playing the drums with ease and without any hesitation; keeping the rhythmic beat of a typical hard rock song. He ended it with a sharp hit of the cymbals and a loud hit of the snare drum, bouncing the stick up into the air when it struck the drum and then catching it again.

The echidna eyed his friends when he set the drum sticks down, and all he received was surprised looks.

"What?"

"You are definitely in this band." Sonic laughed, still in shock. "Dude, I had no idea you could play."

Knuckles chuckled to himself as he stood up to join them. "I practice drum skills with different hollow rocks on the island. It gives me something else to do while watching the master emerald." he replied back.

Before they could carry on a conversation, Shadow walked in the room with a guitar also on his back. Eyeing everyone in the room, he dipped his head in greeting and set the guitar against an amp. "I take it I'm late?" he muttered.

"No, we're just getting started." Sonic said.

As the dark hedgehog sat down on the sofa, he carefully brought out his guitar and stood it up to adjust the tuning for the strings. Sonic was in awe as he glanced at his rival's guitar. It was black with a silver burst design on it.

"What kind of guitar is that, Shads?" the blue blur wondered.

"First of all, quit calling me that…" Shadow muttered darkly. He reached for the amp next to him to turn it on. "And this is a Gibson Custom Les Paul Silverburst."

"That looks like a really expensive guitar." Silver mentioned. "…and rare. Is it new?"

"I've had it for a couple of years. It was decent priced." Shadow shrugged. Plugging the guitar in, he started off playing different bar chords to adjust the tuning. "I put new strings on it this morning. It hasn't been played for awhile," Shadow explained. "They still have yet to be tuned."

"Well, while you're tuning, I want to ask a couple questions." Knuckles said, leaning forward onto the drums and eyeing Sonic. "Why did you want to put together a band again?"

"There's a competition going on in about two months called the World Wide Music Fest." Sonic started explaining. "People from all around the world are going to be there. Auditions are coming up and I figured if we could put something together, maybe we might have a chance to compete. Sounds fun, right?"

The hedgehog got a few nodding heads in response. "Sounds really fun!" Silver said. "It will be like playing in a concert for thousands of people!"

"Try _millions _of people, Silver." Sonic corrected.

"What kind of music will we be playing?" Tails asked.

"What kind of band are we?" Shadow asked right after.

"Well, I figured we would be a band revolving around mainly Rock music. Hard Rock, Rock n' Roll, Southern Rock, you name it!" Sonic answered.

"What's our band _name_? That's an important thing to consider…" Knuckles brought up. Silence befell upon the group.

"Well, why don't you guys each think of a name that could be suitable for us, and we'll agree on one tomorrow? For now, I think we should focus on seeing how well we can play as a group."

"Sounds good."

"And therefore, you guys will need these." Sonic smiled as he grabbed some papers off of the table near the door. He handed a paper to each member of the band. "I hope you guys can read music!"

"What is this?" Knuckles questioned, eyeing the paper confusingly.

"It's the music you guys will be playing. I already put together some songs that we can experiment with. Together it should sound pretty awesome!" Sonic explained.

Shadow read the sheet music, his eyes slowly narrowing. Shaking his head, he set the paper down and set his guitar on his lap. "Listen, faker, I write my own music." he brought up immediately.

Sonic looked up from his lyric sheet. "What?" Snickering, he shook his head. "Let me guess: you can't read music? That's okay, Shadow, not a lot of people can-"

"I _know _how to read music. That's not the point. I just don't need anybody to write my own music for me." Shadow repeated. "I prefer to play what _I _want to play."

"But we haven't even tried out these songs yet." Sonic stopped him. "Let's try playing some of these songs, and I promise, you'll like what you're about to hear."

The next few hours consisted of plugging in and adjusting the sound levels of Silver and Shadow's guitars and playing simple songs to get an idea on how well the five of them could play together. For the most part, they had an equal skill level and none of them found it difficult to stay with the rhythm of the song they played. After getting comfortable with playing as a group, Sonic told them to try playing the first song he passed out, titled "Is This a Dream?". The song started out with Knuckles and Silver playing a speedy and heavy rhythm; Silver's bass line brought in the riff that Shadow would soon be playing. Shadow then started playing powerful bar chords leaving the room echoing with distortion from the amp. Tails' keyboard wouldn't come in until the chorus.

Then it was Sonic's cue to start singing. The other four members had to admit, if they closed their eyes, Sonic could be mistaken to be an 80's rock singer. He had that raspy sound and occasional high pitched scream that any hair band would need to be successful.

When the song ended on a rather wobbly note, Sonic started laughing. "You know, for a first time, that didn't sound too bad. Definitely need to fix the end note though."

"I didn't think we would be able to play together as a group as well as we did for the first time." Tails admitted.

"Well, you remember we were all in the school band back in high school." Knuckles reminded. "We were taught to read music and be able to play it almost perfectly the first time."

"Also, I want to point out something Silver…" Sonic said, looking at Silver's bass sheet as he talked. "You were playing a little flat. The tuning should be standard."

Silver cleared his throat and nodded. "I know, but as we were playing I tuned it down to flat. I wanted to see if it would sound better than what it would have been in standard."

"Well, you see, the music sheet says standard. That means it has to be played in standard. There was nothing wrong with it being in standard." the band leader replied back rather irritated.

"Just experimenting, Sonic. Jeez…"

"Listen guys…" Sonic stated. "I have 5 different songs here to play with. Each one of these songs are written with perfection. If one instrument tries anything different, the entire song will be ruined."

"Silver was playing flat throughout the entire song," Knuckles brought up. "It sounded okay to me."

Tails and even Shadow had to agree with the red echidna.

"Why are you so mad, Sonic?" Tails wondered.

"I'm not mad! It's just…" the hedgehog paused to sigh and process in his mind what he wanted to say. "The auditions are in fifteen days. And we only have the rest of today, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday to master these songs before we are to perform at our first gig."

"Wait a sec! We are already booked for a gig?" Tails asked, shocked.

"We have to at least had performed one successful gig in order to be eligible for the auditions." the blue blur explained.

"Strict rules…" Knuckles muttered under his breath, twirling a drumstick in his hand.

"We have plenty of time." Silver said, uncertainty lingering in his voice. "I mean, look how well we just played this song for the first time! Four more can't be too hard?"

"We still have an additional three songs for the gig." Sonic muttered.

"Okay, well, eight songs! We can master 8 songs in just a few days!" Silver was desperate to sound reassuring and hopeful at this point.

"Not when we are mixing up everything when everything is wrote down right in front of us!" the blue hero reminded. "We can't be mixing anything up!"

"You need to relax, Sonic." Knuckles snapped rather harshly. "This isn't just _your _band, you know!"

Sonic stared at his friend, arms crossed.

"Yeah, you need to realize that when it comes to a band, there isn't just one person who runs the show." Silver explained. "A band is a collaboration. Everyone should have their say in what goes on. Or else it wouldn't be called a band. It would be called 'Guys and guy who controls the other guys'."

Sonic had to chuckle at the silver hedgehog's description. "I guess you're right…"

"And about the sheet music…" Shadow said. Setting his guitar down against the wall, he walked up closer to the other four. "…The song we just played wasn't that bad. But I would like to make some changes on my part."

Sonic sighed again and looked back at the paper in his hand.

"If that's not too much to ask…?"

"Go ahead." Sonic agreed. "But don't go crazy." Shadow only rolled his eyes and walked back to his guitar.

"…And if you want to change the tuning to flat, Silver, go ahead. I'll admit, it didn't sound bad at all." the hedgehog said with a hint of a smile.

Silver nodded in appreciation and started scribbling down the minor changes to his sheet of music.

Sighing, Sonic forced a small smile. "Let's go over this again. And one, two, one, two, three, and..!"

**A/N: And chapter two is done! Looks like someone is turning a little bossy! **_**Why **_**is Sonic being so bossy? How much longer do you think the rest of the band can tolerate his bossiness? And just as another note, I do NOT own any brand of instrument, music genre, or band(s) (If mentioned in later chapters). They belong to their respectful owners. I plan on updating again soon so thanks for reading! Reviews would be awesome!**


	3. Chapter 3

After four long days of constant practicing, Sonic felt that the band was well prepared for their first performance. The blue hedgehog and the other four were on their way to their first gig at the city Music Hall. As they packed up their equipment, Sonic found himself giving silent thanks to Chris and his family. They knew a lot of people around the city, and if it wasn't for them, Sonic and his band would probably still be out looking for a gig. Since they didn't have any sort of vehicle to help tote along the instruments and equipment, they decided to load up Tails' plane with as much equipment as it can carry.

Sonic came out of the house carrying two large guitar amps at once. He started to lose energy quick; arms turning to jello trying to support the weight of amps that were the size of him. Seeing the hedgehog's struggles, Silver held out his hand and as it glowed a bright blue, the amps were taken out of Sonic's arms and gently placed in the plane without a struggle.

"Thanks, Silver." Sonic struggled to catch his breath after getting so much weight off of his shoulders.

"Why were you carrying the amps?" Silver asked, straightening his black leather jacket. He was dressed as any ordinary rock star with black boots and leather attire.

"I could carry them. I had it under control." Sonic defended, putting his dark glasses back over his eyes. Silver rolled his eyes.

Tails hopped out of the plane after loading up different equipment for his keyboard. "C'mon, Sonic. Everyone here knows you're not the strongest one around." the 17 year old pointed out. "That was a job more suitable for either Knuckles or Shadow."

"Where _is_ Knuckles and Shadow?" Silver wondered. "I haven't seen either of them in the past half hour."

"Shadow said he was going to be running late because of a GUN mission this morning." Sonic explained. "But Knuckles should be in the house gathering the parts for the drum set."

"….Which are gathered and ready to go." the red echidna's voice was heard behind them. He had the different parts of the drum set safely packed away in their proper cases and he was pulling them behind him. Like the others, he was also dressed in leather attire. Silver used his telekinesis to help Knuckles lift the drum set pieces into the plane effortlessly. Hopping down, Knuckles wiped away the sweat that started to drench his forehead. "Shadow is coming, right?" he asked.

"He should be on his way now." Sonic said.

"Yeah, he better not blow this opportunity for us. You know we can't do this concert without him." Tails muttered.

Minutes later, the sound of a motorcycle sounded from the end of the road. The four mobians turned around, and Shadow pulled into the driveway on his motorcycle, his guitar safely strapped to the back of it.

"It's about time you got here!" Tails snapped. "What took you so long?"

"Shut it, kid…" Shadow growled back. He remained sitting on the bike even when he turned it off. He removed his dark sunglasses. "Let's go. You have my amp loaded up, right?"

"Yeah, everything's packed." Sonic said. "I'm ready when you guys are."

Knuckles, Tails, Sonic, and Silver all jumped into Tails' plane and the engine started. Tails noticed Shadow still sitting on his motorcycle.

"Let's go Shadow! There's room for you too!" he called over the roar of the engine.

"Go on ahead. I'll follow you guys." he yelled back. Turning on the ignition, the dark hedgehog backed out of the driveway and waited for Tails to take off so he could follow them to the Music Hall. When the plane flew over his head, he took off after them.

…..

Tails parked into an empty lot behind the Music Hall. Minutes later, Shadow came riding through the gate and parked next to them. They helped each other unload all of the equipment and when everything was off of the plane, they took their individual instruments and walked inside the Music Hall to set up.

"Ah, Sonic! There you are!" a voice echoed from the hollow stage. Sonic looked around until he finally saw the owner of the voice. He smiled.

"Hello, Mr. Red!" Sonic greeted with a small wave of the hand. More lights were then turned on, brightening up the backstage area. A tall, slim man with medium length chestnut hair and large cowboy hat walked up to the group of mobians with a wide smile.

"Who's that?" Tails whispered to Sonic.

"That's Mr. Red. He owns this place." Sonic explained quietly as Mr. Red continued to walk up to them. "He's a really cool guy. He'll give us a good review on our gig, I can guarantee you."

"I'm glad you guys could make it!" Mr. Red said, shaking Sonic's hand in greeting. "Chris has told me so much about you guys!"

"We're glad to be here, Mr. Red. Thanks for giving us the opportunity of doing this so we can participate in the World Wide Music Fest." Sonic said.

"Oh yes, the music fest! I can't wait to see you all perform! Millions, I'm talking, _millions _of people will be watching you!" he exclaimed.

"How many people will be watching us now?" Silver stepped in curiously.

"About a half of the Music Hall." Mr. Red said, "Roughly about 1000 people."

'_Whoa!' _Sonic thought anxiously. _'Our first crowd is going to be huge!'_

"Well Sonic, I wish you guys the best of luck!" the older man shook the hedgehog's hand again. "Can't wait to hear you all perform."

Sonic dipped his head in appreciation and with that, the owner of the Music Hall walked from behind the curtains and started talking through the microphone. Loud cheers were heard and immediately Sonic and his group got chills from the anxiety and pressure.

"Let's hurry up and get this stuff hooked up," Silver rushed them as they started plugging in the amps and fixing the settings to their instruments.

"Faker, what name did you decide with?" Shadow asked, throwing the strap of his guitar over his shoulder.

Sonic froze. _The band name!_

"Guys! Did you come up with anything good?" Sonic started to freak out due to the lack of time to decide on one of the most important parts of a band.

"Umm…well…" Tails and Silver were lost in their thoughts, racking their brains for a cool band name. A short silence lingered around the small group.

"Sonic Team?" Tails guessed.

"Too casual.." Sonic shook his head.

"Rush Hour?" Shadow shrugged.

"Nah…"

The roar of the audience grew louder and stronger as Sonic and his band were about to go on stage.

"Do _you _have a name in mind then?" Knuckles barked. "If you haven't noticed, we're kind of running out time?"

"The BYR Band." Sonic blurted out the first thing that came to his head.

"The what?" the group asked simultaneously.

"BYR stands for Blue, Yellow, and Red. Y'know, since most missions taking down Eggman involve myself, Tails, and Knuckles?" Sonic explained. He kept receiving glares and stares of different emotions. Confused, approving, disapproving…

'…_Give a warm welcome to Sonic and his band!' _Mr. Red's enthusiastic voice rang through the hall, resulting in loud cheers and chants.

"It will have to do!" Shadow growled as he pushed the others forward. "Get on stage!"

Sonic and his friends felt the nonstop chills running down their spines when they heard loud cheers welcoming them on stage. Knuckles positioned himself at the drum set, picking up the drum sticks and twirling them to show off skill, Silver went to the far right side of the stage with his bass guitar in hand, Shadow and Tails went to the far left side, and Sonic was up front.

"Hello, Music Hall! We are BYR!" the blue hedgehog greeted loudly through the microphone. "You ready to get this party started?!"

The cheering increased and the lights started to dim down; the multi-colored spotlights covering the stage. Sonic turned to his band and nodded his head.

"1, 2, 3, and-…!"

Knuckles started out with a headstrong, upbeat drum beat in which Silver and Shadow came in afterwards. Tails started playing his keyboard in harmony with the other instruments playing, coming in at the beginning of the verse where Sonic started singing. Their first song was called "Hero".

They had their audience's attention right from the start. When the instrumental break came, Sonic walked around stage and stopped next to each of the other band members. They all looked at one another with a smirk. None of them were struggling with their parts and all five of them were having a good time.

That's what it was supposed to be.

When the song silenced to nothing but a steady beat from the pedal hitting the bass drum, Sonic, Silver, Shadow, and Tails managed to get the entire music hall to clap in rhythm. They even got them to sing the chorus over and over again.

"_Hero by day, Hero by night…" _

"_Side by side, no room for fright…"_

However, when Silver's bass line started again, a loud _POP _was heard, followed by a heavy ringing noise from his amp. The psychic hedgehog's eyes widened when he realized that two of the strings on his bass had broke!  
He couldn't continue playing.

He tried to make up for his part by playing higher notes of the same chords from before, but in the end, it made the entire song sound strange.

Sonic noticed this and slowly started to panic.

When they started playing the chorus once more, it seemed that the bad luck just hadn't left yet. The snare drum on Knuckles' drum set suddenly fell from it's position with a loud _BANG_! A cymbal also decided to fall with it with a _CRASH_!

Sonic found himself not breathing.

With no bass and no drums, Sonic swallowed as his thoughts began to race.

"Hero by day, Hero by da- I-I mean, night!" he stuttered. "No room for fright-…wait…"

Shadow shook his head and immediately stopped playing. Tails had stopped playing a long time ago, too surprised from the sudden bad luck that had befell.

Booooooooo!

The crowd's cheering quickly faded and was sadly turning into disapproving booing. With the lyrics messed up and everyone in the band slowly stopping what they were doing, Sonic was pretty much dodging the drinks and snacks being thrown at him and the rest of the band. They all ditched their instruments and took cover back stage.

"What was that?!" the blue hedgehog freaked out. "What were you guys thinking?!"

"The strings on my bass broke! It wasn't my fault!" Silver snapped back, peeling a piece of pizza off of his new jacket.

"What about you, Knuckles?!"

"The drums started falling apart!" the 26 year old echidna defended. "I guess I didn't tighten them enough…"

"You hear that out there?" Sonic asked. "That is the sound of 1000 people booing us! Meaning, they will never pay to see us play again!"

Before the blue blur could freak out any more, Mr. Red walked up to them looking quite disappointed.

"What happened, fellas?" he wondered out loud. "You guys were sounding really good and….what happened?"  
"Just technical difficulties, sir." Tails spoke up. "We can fix them easily. Will you give us another chance to play?"

"I'm sorry, guys, but the crowd is already fighting to get out of here. I'm afraid you guys are done for today." Mr. Red replied back. A hopeful smile appeared on his mustached face. "Hey, but look at the bright side, when you guys are really prepared, come on back." With that, the man walked away, shaking his head with a sigh.

Sonic sighed as well. He took a seat on the nearby guitar case and buried his head in his hands. "We really needed to do well…" he muttered. "You don't realize how important this is."

"Why do you care so much?" Shadow asked. "It's not like our lives depend on this."

"Yeah, we're just not cut out for this." Silver said.

"It's just I know we have the skill to win the World Wide Music Festival." Sonic explained. "The winner receives $100,000, a recording contract, and a chaos emerald and-"

"Why do care about winning all of that for?" Knuckles interrupted. "You've saved the town so many times that you practically have made a living in cash rewards, and if you wanted the chaos emeralds just go find Eggman and steal them from him."

"Speaking of Eggman, are you sure this competition doesn't have anything to do with that mad man?" Tails wondered.

Sonic immediately shook his head no. "I know it doesn't have anything to do with him. They hold this contest traditionally every 5 years, so it's nothing new."

Shadow smirked to himself. _'Eggman doesn't have the chaos emeralds anyhow….I do.' _he thought to himself. _'I have all seven. So that chaos emerald reward isn't even real…'_

When the sound of booing died down to silence, the band walked out on stage to reclaimed their instruments now that the angry crowd was gone.

"You really want to know why?" Sonic asked, placing his guitar back in the case. "You guys remember Sonia and Manic, right? My sister and brother?"

He received four nodding heads in response.

"They called me last week and told me about this contest. I gave up playing guitar years ago, but Sonia and Manic continued to be in the music business. They were angry at me for not playing anymore, and they called me to rub it in my face that they were going to win something like this and I wasn't."

"So you're doing this…to beat them?" Tails asked.

Sonic nodded. "…To show them that they aren't the only good musicians around here."

Shadow shook his head. "That's a ridiculous reason." he spat.

"Please guys? This will be a fun experience! I mean, yeah we messed up on the first try but think about it! If our instruments were in great shape, we would have rocked the house!"

Sonic got a few nodding heads in response.

"All we need are some good repairs done on the instruments and we'll be the best band in town. So what do ya say? You want to give it another go?"

The other four band members eyed each other, trying to read the other's mind. Finally they smiled.

"Let's do it."

As the group finished putting away their instruments, thanking the Gods above that no damage was done to them from the raging crowd, Sonic's cell phone began ringing. He took out the phone from his jacket pocket and looked at the ID.

"Oh no…" he swallowed nervously. It was the manager of the Amusement Park; their next gig. "H-Hello?" he stammered.

"Sonic?" the manager's voice sounded from the phone's speaker. When Sonic saw his friends staring at him in confusion, the hedgehog simply put the phone on speaker for them all to hear.

"Yes, Mr. Henley?" Sonic replied back.

"Hey, buddy! What happened?" he asked. "I just got a call from Mr. Red! From what I heard, you guys really blew it!"

"Yeah, we kinda did…" Sonic admitted. "But-"

"Sonic, you know I can't let you guys play if I get a bad review." Mr. Henley interrupted. Sonic was left speechless for a moment. He felt his heart skip a beat.

"But sir, we need this chance! We need this chance to be able to perform in the Music Fest!" he pleaded. "Please, sir! Just give us one chance and I promise, we'll be the best band you ever seen!"

There was a silence on the other end of the phone until the band finally heard a sigh.

"Fine." Mr. Henley said. "But if you mess this up, Sonic the Hedgehog, it _will _be your last chance!"

"Thank you sir!" Sonic smiled in relief. "You wont be disappointed. We'll be seeing you on Sunday then!"

He didn't get a response back before the phone started beeping, indicating that the man on the other line had hung up.

"He didn't sound too happy…" Silver muttered.

"Wow, thanks for pointing out the obvious, Silver." Knuckles rolled his eyes. Before Silver could retort back, Sonic held up his hand. "But we still have a gig, don't we?" Everyone nodded again.

"Let's finish loading up the equipment back in Tails' plane and head home. We'll spend tomorrow getting the equipment fixed up so we're reading to go on Sunday." Sonic instructed, picking up some of the cases that held their equipment.

As they loaded up the instruments, Shadow was left thinking to himself. Putting away his SilverBurst, he couldn't help but wonder about the so called 'Chaos Emerald' that was being given away as a prize. He had all seven chaos emeralds, so he knew this one was a fake.

But perhaps it was simply just a beautiful, priceless gem. One that could be made into a gift? A very special gift?

For a very special woman?

Shadow smiled as he followed behind his band mates. Pulling the glasses down over his eyes again, he knew exactly what he was going to do with the emerald if they won.

_If _they won.

He was going to be honest. He didn't see Sonic's band winning. Not at all. However, he was going to stick with them for one more concert and see how things go. If things turn out bad again, he was strongly considering starting a band himself.

After all, he now had all intentions on winning the emerald if it was the last thing he did.

**A/N: And chapter three is done! Yay! Ohhh, so Shadow has his own reason for winning now, doesn't he? What does he want with the emerald? What do you guys think? A review would be awesome! The next chapter will be up soon! Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

The BYR band stood backstage of the outdoor stage. The sun was bright and the sky was cloudless on the day of their second concert.

This time, it was at an amusement park just outside of town.

After the failed concert the day before, the five mobians took a small field trip to the music store. There, they bought new strings for the guitars, amps with a louder distortion, and odds and ends for Knuckles' drum set. Personally, the echidna didn't even like the drum set. Even after buying the new equipment for it, it still gave him trouble with the set up.

Once they made enough money, he was determined to get a new one.

The band even did a run-through of the set list for the concert that morning, and the drum set still threatened to fall apart. After a mild tantrum and rough-handling of the instrument, and much to the band's surprise, Knuckles managed to tighten the knobs of the drum set tight enough to hold together.

They had rehearsed all morning and felt that the instruments were well taken care of (besides the small dent in the bass drum from Knuckles' tantrum), and the songs were well sung and correct.

They were ready to go.

Sonic walked up to a cooler and grabbed a handful of water bottles. He tossed one to each of his band mates, who were trying to stay cool. The heat was a little bit too much for them on the rather hot day. But the adrenaline rush from their audience just on the other side of the curtain kept them going.

"So, you made sure everything was hooked up to the amps, correct?" Sonic asked.

"Everything is ready to go." Tails assured him with a thumbs up. The fox wore a plain black shirt with baggy denim jeans. The three bangs that hung just above his eyes were combed straight and now hung loosely over his face.

"Everyone know the lyrics?"

"Yes, Sonic." Shadow rolled his eyes. "Do _you_?" he retorted with a hint of sarcasm.

"Hey!" the blue hedgehog snapped. "I only forgot the lyrics because you guys messed up and it distracted me!"

Silver took a drink from his water bottle after adjusting the black and blue bandana around his neck. "That's another thing I think we should do." he said.

"Mess up?" Knuckles questioned. He almost sounded serious.

"No!" Silver barked. "I mean, I've studied some of the bands that I like. Many times bands have messed up during their performances and yet, the one who messed up quickly resolves the issue while the others continued on with their part. The show went on."

"Where are you getting at?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm saying, if something just so happens to go wrong while we're performing, just keep playing. Whoever has issues can resolve them quickly and the rest of us can keep the audience's attention."

"Good thinking…" Shadow agreed.

"Ok, but what if-…!" Sonic was cut off when something leapt on his back and wrapped it's arms around his neck.

"Guess who?" a familiar voice sung.

Sonic laughed. He knew that voice anywhere. "I'll admit it, Ames, you scared me for a second." he said. Amy let go of her boyfriend as she walked around to face him and the band.

"You guys look so great!" she complimented. She twirled in her new pink and yellow dress she got for her birthday. "I know you guys will do awesome today!"

Just then, Cream and Rouge came out from behind the corner as well. Cream ran up and hugged Tails.

"I agree!" she said. "I can't wait to see you guys perform." Everyone smiled their appreciation. Ever since the young girl turned 15, Cream's voice was no longer a squeaky, high-pitched sound but instead now smooth and well…not so high pitched. She grasped Tails' hand and looked into his eyes. He smiled back. He was itching to ask her out on a date next week or so, but he had to overcome his shyness first.

Some day, he thought to himself.

Rouge walked up to Shadow and gave him a quick hug. They even shared a quick kiss. "We're so sorry we weren't able to come see you guys yesterday at the Music Hall." she apologized, leaning her forehead on Shadow's.

Shadow only chuckled. "You didn't miss much…" was all he said. He never bothered telling her that their first gig was a fail.

"Is Blaze with you guys?" Silver asked, throwing the strap of his guitar over his shoulder.

"No, she had some errands to run." Cream explained. "But she'll be here in time to see you guys perform."

Silver nodded and smiled. He proceeded in tuning his bass guitar.

Just then, the amusement park's owner, Mr. Henley, walked backstage to meet with the group of mobian musicians.

"Alrighty, Sonic. I hope you guys are ready to go today." he said. The heavy set man adjusted his rather large sunglasses. He was too serious for the band's comfort.

"We are, sir." Sonic assured. "We won't let you down."

"You better not. Remember this is rather a _privilege _now. You blew your first chance, now you need to make it up." Mr. Henley wagged a finger at him. "Don't mess up, hedgehog."

Sonic nodded as he watched the owner walk around the curtain to start the gig.

"Not a very nice man…" Amy muttered under her breath.

"Well, we didn't exactly do very well yesterday. He's giving us another chance." Sonic admitted, scratching his ears sheepishly. No one told the girls how the gig was the day before.

"What do you mean?"

"We kinda…uh…"

"Got booed off stage." Knuckles finished the sentence. "We weren't good at all."

"C'mon, Knuckles. It wasn't _that _bad." Sonic turned to his red friend.

"Sonic…" Knuckles eyed his rival back, twirling a drumstick in his hand. "It was bad."

Before the blue blur could say anything else, the roar of the audience silenced the group.

'_Are you ready to rock?!' _they could hear Mr. Henley yell over the microphone. _'Then please welcome, the BYR band!'_

More applause sounded.

The girls quickly groomed the guys as they started walking on stage. Knuckles and Silver already walked around the curtain and were waving to the now loud crowd.

Cream gave Tails another hug. "Good luck, Tails!"

Amy gave Sonic a kiss. "Go show them who's boss, Sonic!"

Rouge also kissed Shadow before he went around the curtain. "We'll be watching from the front row, love." she said. Shadow nodded and followed Sonic and Tails on stage as the girls quickly scrambled down the stairs to catch a seat in the front row.

"Are we having fun here at the amusement park?!" Sonic asked the crowd. Loud cheering was his answer. "Well, let's get the _real _party started! 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, and…!"

The five band members started off simultaneously with all five instruments playing the same harmony. The song was one that Amy had helped Sonic write called "Love's Arrow".

"_She stole your heart, stole your mind…_

_Oh yeah, she's your secret Valentine…" _

Sonic's vocals were backed up with Silver singing soprano and Shadow singing alto in backing vocals. Towards the middle of the song, Knuckles broke out into a short but mind-blowing drum solo primarily to test out if the old, untrustworthy drum set would fall apart this time.

Luckily, it didn't. The band successfully performed their first song, leaving the audience cheering like no tomorrow.

For the rest of the gig, the band were blessed with a perfect performance. Not even a wrong lyric was sung throughout the entire 3 hour concert. They performed songs that were taught from the sheet music Sonic handed out the first day of practice, titled, "Joke of a Joker" and "Queen of Hearts".

They even included the song that went so horribly wrong the day before titled "Hero".

The band ended on a very strong note, leaving the audience wanting an encore. Sonic and his group were all for it, but Mr. Henley came on stage and took over the microphone.

"I'm afraid BYR has no time for an encore." he said rather dully. But his expression lit up almost immediately. "But that's only because the next band after them has yet to set up! Stay tuned folks!"

Somewhat disappointed that they couldn't play their first encore, Sonic and the band followed behind Mr. Henley around backstage. Looking back at his band mates, Sonic seen a mix of fear and confusion in their faces.

'_Why did he end our show like that?' _he thought. _'Did he not like it? I bet we just blew our last chance of getting into the Music Fest…'_

When they reached backstage, Mr. Henley did nothing but just stare at the five sweaty mobians. Nothing was said for the longest time. Suspension started to build up in Sonic until he finally couldn't wait any longer.

"Sir, is there a reason you're cutting us off?" Sonic questioned quickly.

Mr. Henley broke out into laughter. "I was serious, Sonic!" he replied.

There was a confused silence.

"…That there was another band that has to set up after you guys!" Henley continued. "Other than that, you guys were absolutely wonderful!"

"Wait…so you liked it?" Tails asked.

"Of course! Oh man, you really did keep your promise, Sonic my boy!" the older man shook the hedgehog's hand. "When you start scheduling more gigs, definitely contact me first! You guys are one of the best groups I've had play at my amusement park in a very long time."

Sonic glanced at his friends; each of them were excited about the good review.

"Your paycheck will be in the mail by next Wednesday, Sonic. Congrats on the first successful gig." Said, Mr. Henley nodded his head in appreciation and walked away. He paused in his walk. "…And I'll also send in the review for your eligibility to be in the Music Fest. They're going to get a pretty good review from me."

Said, the man disappeared out of sight.

It wasn't long until the girls came squealing around the corner, tackling their friends.

"You guys were incredible!" they said at once. "You definitely have what it takes to be in the World Wide Music Fest!"

Despite being all sweaty, the three girls hugged each band member tightly. Blaze kept her promise and showed up right before the group started playing. She snuck up behind Silver and wrapped him up in a great bear hug.

"You were wonderful, Silver!" she complimented. The psychic hedgehog jumped a little from the surprise. He smirked. The hedgehog then waved his hand in front of him and as it glowed a bright neon blue, Blaze was lifted off of the ground from behind him and was brought in front of him so he could face her.

She crossed her arms across her chest as she continued floating in front of him. "Okay, Silver. Put me down." she giggled.

"Not until you give me a kiss first." Silver smiled, stepping forward with an arched eyebrow.

Blaze just laughed again before giving him a quick kiss on the lips. Silver kept his word and Blaze landed on her feet again.

"Come on! This calls for some ice cream at Bruno's Shop! On me!" Amy announced.

After loading up their equipment and instruments on Tails' plane again, they all took a ride up the road from the amusement park to the best ice cream shop in all of the city, famously named Bruno's Ice Cream and Sweets Shop. They were relieved to be in a building with air conditioning since they spent the last few hours out in the blazing sun.

They sat around a round table that glowed a bright green and pink, much like the other retro-themed furniture in the shop, and happily ate their ice cream treats.

"I still can't believe you guys are actually going to be in the Music Fest!" Cream said with amazement.

"We can't either!" Tails laughed. "It's going to be pretty crazy, performing in front of millions of people!"

Rouge took another bite out of her rocky road ice cream. "Now, you guys do plan on doing a few more gigs before the Fest right?" she wondered.

"Of course." Sonic replied. "I have a couple more in mind in the weeks to come."

"Just making sure." the bat continued. "You may think this is nothing, Sonic, but let me tell you; The pressure is going to be unbelievable! You're going to be going up against other bands with the same skill level as you."

Sonic snorted and leaned back in his chair. "Nothing we can't handle." he muttered confidently. Rouge saw his over-confidence and rolled her eyes. She looked over to Shadow and laid her head on his shoulder. "I forgot to tell you that I'm going away on a G.U.N. mission for a few days." she told him.

"G.U.N.?" Shadow narrowed his eyes. "What mission? I just finished one myself."

"Well, apparently they weren't satisfied with what evidence you and the Chief found about the stolen equipment. They want me and a few other goons to get more information." Rouge explained with a bored sigh.

Shadow growled to himself. "Hm…"

"I'll be sure to give you call though." the 25 year old bat smiled warmly. "I'm going to be pretty lonely."

Shadow just smiled back and gave her the rest of what was left of his ice cream.

…..

Later on that day, towards the evening hours, Sonic called back his band mates for a quick meeting.

They all hung out in the band room, lounging on the sofa or mindlessly fiddling with their instruments.

"Alright, I just wanted to bring a few things up." Sonic started the tiny meeting. "We all know the auditions are in about 8 days. So I just wanted to make something clear. For the next couple days, we are going to keep working on the songs that we already know and also throw in a couple new ones I have here." he took a moment to hold up more sheet music. He heard a sigh come from Tails and Knuckles.

Especially Shadow.

"And once we get the new songs down," Sonic continued, ignoring his friends' boredom, "I have a couple of places we could call about for another gig."

Before the blue hedgehog could continue, Shadow stood up and shook his head.

"Before you continue, Sonic, I just wanted to let you know that…" he paused in his sentence. "…I do not wish to stay in this band."

The room suddenly got colder as the remaining four members found themselves not breathing.

Sonic had a look of fear in his eyes. "You're…leaving the band?"

"I want to start my own band," Shadow smirked. "Simply so I can lead my own band into the World Wide Music Fest."

"But why, Shadow?" Tails wondered.

"Don't you want to help _us _win?" Knuckles asked. "I mean, we all can play pretty good together.

"It's not a matter of how good we play the music. It's a matter of freedom." Shadow said. "I want to write my _own _music and be able to feel as if I'm in _a _band, not _Sonic's _band."

There was a sharp silence.

"But you're the lead guitarist, dude!" Sonic finally freaked. "You're one of the most important people!"

"Then find another!" Shadow snapped back. He grabbed his guitar case and started walking to the door. "Good luck without me."

As the dark hedgehog walked out of the room, Sonic eyed the remaining three band members with shock.

"What just happened?" he muttered.

"Shadow left the band." Silver replied back simply.

Knuckles let his eyes slowly trail up to the hedgehog next to him, clearly not amused. "Wow, we never realized that. Thanks, Captain Obvious!"

"I didn't know if he was actually being serious or not!" Silver cried. As the two argued, Tails walked up to Sonic, who had taken a seat on one of the guitar amps, left with unsettled thoughts.

"Sonic, what are we going to do?" he asked, taking a seat next to him.

Sonic finally sighed. "I'm going to fill in for Shadow. I'm going to play rhythm and lead guitar." he said.

"Can you do it?"

"I was the lead guitarist in the band with my sister and brother. I'm sure I can remember a few tricks with the guitar." Sonic smirked.

"That was strange how Shadow just suddenly decided that he didn't want to be in this band anymore." the 17 year old fox said.

"I sense competition. He wants to win the competition for himself." Sonic said simply. He looked at his little brother and narrowed his eyes. "Well, that's not going to happen."

**A/N: Another chapter done! Yay! So Sonic and his band were finally able to perform a single successful concert and will now be eligible to participate in the Music Fest. But now they lost their lead guitarist! What are Shadow's plans now? The next chapter will be up soon! A review would be awesome, as usual! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Shadow was up and out of bed by nine. Everyone knew the hedgehog wasn't much of a morning person, but that's nothing a few cups of coffee couldn't fix. Immediately, Shadow proceeded in dedicating one of the rooms in his home into a band room. There, he had a few amps set up, his trusty Les Paul Silverburst hanging on the wall, and a drum set set up in the back. An agent he worked with in G.U.N. played drums with a small city band every Saturday night. The band was on break for a few weeks, so he let Shadow borrow the drum set for the time being.

Shadow had called two of his friends the night before and asked them to come over and talk about possibly starting a band. Since he had quit Sonic's band, the dark hedgehog was quite confident in starting his own band and making them into something that would win the Music Fest. Don't get him wrong, he was determined to win, and the emerald was what he had his intentions on. But he also wanted to enter this contest because playing music meant a lot to him as well.

The two friends that Shadow called were excellent musicians, he knew very well. Together, the dark hedgehog knew they could overpower Sonic and his little band.

Later that morning, Shadow heard knocking at his door.

They were there.

"It's open!" he called out loudly enough for his friends to hear. His ear twitched as he heard the door creak open and close, followed by footsteps coming closer to the music room.

Shadow had called in Espio the chameleon and Jet the hawk.

Shadow watched them as they quietly entered the music room and took a seat on the couch in the corner. Seeing two of his old rivals again after a long while made him smirk. It's been almost a half of a year since they have worked together on either taking down Eggman or even just having a simple race. Espio and Jet didn't look any different besides maybe being a little taller although Jet's head feathers had grown out to be a longer length and his feathers were a darker green.

It's funny that Shadow called _them _in because none of them really got along very well. Shadow just hoped that after a long while from seeing and working with each other, excluding Amy's Birthday just a few days before, maybe they would be on good terms.

"What's this about, Shadow?" Espio was the first to speak up.

"Yeah, this better be worth my time!" Jet snapped. "I'm missing a race because of this!"

'_Same old Jet…' _Shadow mindlessly rolled his ruby eyes. The dark hedgehog took a seat on one of the tall guitar amps.

"I called you two in because I wanted to….make a deal." Shadow started to explain. "Now I know we have a long history of not being on good terms, but I think I may have found something that we could combine our skills and be on _good _terms about."

"What would that be?" the 25 year old chameleon asked.

"Music." Shadow replied simply. "What do you guys think about being part of a band?"

"A band?" both mobians wondered. Jet laughed silently. "What made you think of this?"

"Well, there's a world wide music competition going on in about a month, and I thought together we could compete."

Immediately, Jet stood up and shook his head. "Enough said," the hawk muttered. "I know what you're up to, pal! You're just going to use us so _you _can win the music fest. Trust me, I already know what this is about. I got a call from Sonic yesterday."

Shadow arched an eyebrow. "Sonic called _you_?"

"Yeah, supposedly they just lost their lead guitarist." he gave Shadow a bored expression, knowing that the hedgehog was the one that left Sonic's band. "He called me and wondered if I was interested in playing with them."

"Why you?" Shadow wondered. "I thought you two didn't get along?"

"We don't. But he knew I played guitar. He was kind of running out of options. He said he thought he could play both lead and rhythm but he thought maybe it would be easier to go around and ask some of us if we wanted to play with them."

"….And you said no?"

"Of course I did!" Jet snorted. "Why would I want to play with _his _band? I pity Tails, Knuckles, and Silver! He's just using them so he can win the Music Fest!"

As he started to walk out the door, Shadow stopped him.

"Why would _I_ use you guys?" the hedgehog wondered, speaking casually. "I called you and Espio in because I knew you two had a liking to music and _wished _to be in a band."

Jet stopped and leaned against the door frame. What was being said caught Espio's attention as well.

"I saw you guys play at Amy's birthday. Espio, I know you were playing guitar at the party but you are an insanely good drummer. G.U.N. had a mission one night down near the park area and when I was with them, I saw you playing in a group with a few of your friends. You were playing drums that night." Shadow explained.

Espio just nodded and fiddled with his thumbs.

"And Jet, I know you know a thing or two about guitar playing. What you played at Amy's birthday was nothing but skill." Shadow finally shook his head and hopped down from the guitar amp. "You guys know me. I have better things to do than beg people to join a band. But I wanted to start a band because unlike Sonic, I'm doing this for the _love _of music, not to _win_. And even though we don't get along very well, I still think our skills combined would make one heck of a good band. Even better than _Sonic's_."

Silence befell the three as Jet and Espio exchanged glances as if trying to read each other's minds.

"The position is open." Shadow concluded. "It's yours if you want it."

After a few more minutes of silence, Jet finally spoke up again. "What do we get in return?" he asked, folding his arms in a serious manner.

"If we win this thing, we get $500,000, a recording contract, and a priceless emerald. They say it's a chaos emerald, but I know it's fake."  
Espio narrowed his eyes. "How do you know?"

Shadow smirked cockily. "…Because I took all 7 of them a week ago. I have all of them."

Jet seemed to be clued in now. "You said….$500,000?"

Shadow nodded simply. He smiled, knowing that Jet and Espio were going to accept his offer. "And how cool would it be to have a recording contract? Our music would be sold in stores."

Jet and Espio looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

Shadow cleared his throat and eyed the two. "And my deal for you is…you two can have _everything_. I don't care about that stuff. But, all I do ask for is the emerald."

"Everything?" Jet wondered. "You mean, you don't want the money?"

"Why would I need the money? I'm working with G.U.N.. I'm making a decent living." Shadow questioned. "I could care less. But that emerald they're giving away, I want that."

Espio stood up and sighed loudly, eyeing the floor. "This isn't a trick…?" he muttered. "Because Shadow, it's pretty sick if this is."

Shadow shook his head and held up his hand. "You have my word." he promised. "All I'm looking for is a good time with this. I know you two had thoughts about joining a band to release some of those skills you have. Well, I'm giving you that chance."

The dark hedgehog held out his hand. "What do you say?"

Espio stared at the extended hand for a moment before smiling and shaking it. "Deal."

Jet stepped up too. "I'm in, hedgehog." he agreed.

Shadow nodded and smirked. "When do you want to get started?"

"Tomorrow would be good, if that's okay." Espio said. "I have a few errands to run with Vector and Charmy. Today is just too busy."

"I have plans with my team as well." Jet added. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow it is." Shadow agreed. "Be here at noon." As the hawk and chameleon started heading out the door, Jet stopped in his tracks.

"Can I ask you something?"

Shadow looked up wordlessly.

"Why do you want the emerald so bad?"

Shadow stared silently. Should he tell him the real reason why he's entering this contest?

Nah.

"It's going to be part of a gift for a friend." he said simply, keeping the real reason a secret just for a while longer.

"I see." the 19 year old hawk said. "Can't argue with that. Catch ya later, hedgehog."  
Shadow nodded his goodbyes as his new band walked out the door.

Now left with nothing to do for the rest of the day, he grabbed his trusty Les Paul off of the wall, plugged it in to the amp, and turned the amp up to max volume. He took a seat on the couch and started playing some tunes that he had in mind.

He smirked again. Now all he needed was a name for the band.

**A/N: And another somewhat short chapter done! Yay! So Shadow decided to join forces with Jet and Espio and start a band of his own. I wonder how well this is going to turn out…? What kind of competition will Sonic's band have? We'll find out soon! Let me know what you guys think so far! Reviews are always welcome! Thanks for reading! **


End file.
